A Room Full of Your Posters
by Krombopulos-Will
Summary: Villain!Midoriya. The slime villain didn't attack. Bakugou never needed rescuing. No wondrous event proved he deserved All Might's Quirk. He was still desperate to know whether a Quirkless boy could become a hero. If only there were some way to get All Might's attention...
1. Chapter 1

Izuku was alone.

He trudged home, remembering Bakugou's words: _If you think you'll have a Quirk in your next life… go take a swan dive off the roof!_

He couldn't tell any of his classmates or teachers, of course. They'd take Bakugou's side, tell Izuku that he was taking a joke too harshly. Worse, his classmates might say he deserved it. That Bakugou wasn't wrong. That he should have jumped.

Inko saw the look on his face and the burnt notebook in his hands when he made it home. She offered a hug - she had to fill in as Izuku's best friend.

"Oh, Izuku, what happened?" she asked.

Izuku walked to the kitchen with her. "The teacher was talking about careers and everybody in the class wanted to be a hero. Then Kacchan made fun of me for wanting to get into UA, and after school he burned my notebook and told me to kill myself."

Inko gave a familiar sympathetic frown. "Honey, horrible boys like Bakugou are looking for opportunities to attack you, but he won't be around forever. I wish I could have given you a Quirk to deal with him. Middle school is the worst part of life, so you just have to get through it until you can enter the adult world where you can avoid people like him."

Izuku nodded, noting that she said nothing about Bakugou being factually wrong, or about Izuku's adult life involving heroism. He didn't know why he still bothered telling her about his days. He grabbed an apple from the kitchen counter and retreated to his room.

Izuku would have to rewrite everything into a new notebook eventually, but he didn't want to remind himself of what happened at school just then. Instead, he turned on the computer to catch the latest updates on various hero forums and chatrooms. Usually, seeing all the new hero content cheered him up after a day of being bullied. New heroes, costumes, fanart, speculation, and official merchandise updates were his life outside of school. Since his life inside of school sucked so much, he considered his online life his only life.

That day, though, reading about Mt. Lady's debut just made him sad. His notes on her from his encounter that morning were incomplete. He wanted to write in his notebook about how she had one of the most powerful Quirks and was sure to rise through the ranks quickly, but his notebook was burnt. Plus, _he_ couldn't rise through those same ranks. Mt. Lady was so lucky to have a good Quirk.

Izuku found himself once again drawn to All Might's website, scrolling down to the little "contact" link at the bottom. He'd sent many fan mails over his life. His first mail was poorly-typed gushing over how awesome All Might was, back when he barely knew how to read. Soon after, the doctor delivered the news that he would never manifest a Quirk of his own. He'd sent an email with the question that had come to define his life: could a child without a Quirk become a hero?

No answer at age five, and no answer the hundreds of other times he'd sent the question. Sometimes alternate emails for All Might appeared on the forums, but they all turned out to be roleplayers, scams, or hoaxes. Izuku needed the answer more than ever. He wasn't going to hear it from his mom or dad. He wasn't going to hear it from his teachers. He certainly wasn't going to hear it from the other students. His one hope was to hear it from All Might. If All Might told him he could be a hero, then he would have worth.

Izuku created a new email account in case his old one had been blocked and posed as a parent asking about a child. "My son has no Quirk, but he still wants to be a hero. Do you think he still has a chance?" Short and sweet. He hoped his desperation didn't show through the text and put All Might off. Maybe that was the problem with his messages. He messed around on baby name websites for a couple minutes to find a name to sign with, then sent the email.

After sending, he felt like a bigger idiot than before. A real parent would describe their kid more, or maybe add how much the kid or the parent liked All Might, so the connection was clearer. No wonder none of his messages received responses.

He clicked to All Might's official Facebook account. He'd been warned before about spamming in the comments with his questions, but he didn't care at that moment. A picture of All Might endorsing a new toothpaste began the timeline. Izuku wrote a comment underneath. "Hey All Might, have you seen my other messages? I just want to know if I can still become a hero without a Quirk. My life's had some rough patches lately, so it would mean a lot to me to hear an answer. Thanks, I'm your biggest fan!" All Might never responded to the comments, but maybe fortune would smile on Izuku for once in his life.

Izuku clicked on All Might's Twitter and Instagram last. All Might also never responded to Izuku's comments there. Worse, other people did. They discouraged him by saying he needed to have a Quirk to be a hero, among other awful comments. It didn't matter what some strangers online said, though. Only the greatest hero of all time could tell Izuku for certain. He left his comments, then refreshed his email and the three social media pages again and again.

The Facebook group banned him after half an hour. He knew it was coming, but it still hurt to have that avenue of connection with All Might closed. He felt stuck in a rut: posting again and again on social media sites to talk to All Might even though All Might clearly didn't do social media interaction with the public. All Might retweeted other heroes, police officers, or journalists, but never random fans.

Izuku looked around his room at all his All Might merchandise. Posters covered his walls, action figures sat on every flat surface, and plush toys and stickers rested in his drawers. A cup to hold pencils in the shape of All Might's head stood next to his computer. All Might was the strongest, coolest hero ever and Izuku wanted to be just like him. Part of him wanted to give up on life and accept that he would never become a hero like All Might. But he couldn't lose the hope that kept him going, not when All Might could still confirm it.

Izuku spent the rest of the night refreshing his pages and posting on hero forums to distract himself. Of course, no answer came. All Might probably used a social media team so that he could spend more time on heroism. Izuku's last thought of the night was, _I need to do something new tomorrow. My current methods will never work._


	2. Chapter 2

Izuku was sitting alone during lunch, starting on his homework, when it hit him. _All Might isn't communicating with _me_, sure, but there _are _people he communicates with online. Maybe they could reach him on my behalf._

He always felt better with a plan, so the rest of the school day was easy, even with Bakugou yelling at him. Izuku saw a new path toward confidence and even heroism, with no more stumbling in circles. This would require a fresh notebook. After school, he told Inko the day had been "the usual" and rushed to his room.

All Might never responded to people on Instagram or Facebook, only Twitter. Izuku scrolled through his tweets, writing down who All Might replied to. When somebody's name popped up more than once, Izuku wrote a tally mark next to it. He felt nostalgic seeing all those tweets again. By the time he finished, he was ready to sleep.

The next day, Izuku returned to Twitter and looked through All Might's likes, writing down the accounts in his notebook. Once again, it took all night, especially since homework came first. He felt proud of his new notebook pages, like he'd solved a riddle. How many All Might fans knew as much as he did?

With the weekend, Izuku had the time to contact these people. Usually Izuku's weekends had no real purpose - sometimes he'd tag along with Bakugou and his friends, other times he would read more hero articles. It felt good to have a goal for the weekend outside of homework.

The person All Might talked to most was police detective Naomasa Tsukauchi. Izuku spent half an hour trying to figure out the right message. It couldn't be too long, or he wouldn't read it, and it had to be formal and respectable - at least for Naomasa, though maybe not for the others. After twenty rewrites, he realized he was wasting time out of nervousness. He ended up sending, "Hello, my name is Izuku Midoriya, from Aldera Junior High. You and All Might interact often, so could you please pass a message to him? I would like to know if somebody without a Quirk has any hope of becoming a hero. Best regards, Izuku Midoriya."

No response. Of course, an important police detective would be busy, but Izuku still felt bad. He also worried he was keeping Tsukauchi from some crucial business, but the man _did_ use Twitter sometimes. If Izuku was going to get his answer, he'd have to bother some people.

The next most liked and retweeted person on Izuku's list was David Shield, All Might's costume designer from America. All his tweets were in English so Izuku wasn't sure if he knew Japanese. He translated his previous message to Tsukauchi as best he could. Izuku achieved good grades in English out of a need to understand enough to read English articles about international heroes. He wasn't good enough to participate in English forums though, even though he wanted to because they were bigger.

Once again, Izuku received no immediate response. Was it because of his embarrassing English? At least most of the people on the list spoke Japanese. Not seeing a reply was still a gut punch, making him think, _I shouldn't have set my hopes so high._

The next guy didn't allow private messaging unless the accounts followed each other. Izuku followed him and publicly asked him for a follow back. After that was Midnight, but Izuku couldn't bother another hero! Bothering All Might was already bad enough, though necessary. He continued down the list, mostly copying and pasting his message to Tsukauchi. Part of him fretted that these people would all tell each other about his messages and laugh at him or see him as a spammer, but what were the odds of that? They mostly didn't know each other.

After an hour, Izuku was used to not getting a reply so it excited him when he saw one. The man's name was Kiyoo and he made support items. Unfortunately, the answer was just, "no. don't message me" which made Izuku's eyes well up. After all this effort, that was all he got? He sighed and continued down the list.

The next message came five minutes later, another disappointment. "All Might would not want to talk to you." Not even a "did not," a "would not," meaning the lady didn't even try. Izuku kept going, though - these messages discouraged him, but they didn't extinguish his hope. The next message just said, "I don't work with All Might anymore," which was at least nicer.

Izuku continued messaging until dinner, finding every response negative. A couple people not only wouldn't send him to All Might, but gave their own answers to his question. "Don't even bother. You will get in the way," said one. Another asked if his parents were morons for raising him in a way that would even allow him to ask such a question.

Dinner passed quietly and quickly because Izuku was so interested in seeing responses on Twitter. Even though he knew he'd find more jerks, he still felt like he was missing important updates by sitting around eating with Inko. She said she felt happy he found a project to keep him busy. Izuku didn't give details about his project because he could predict what she would say: he was setting himself up for disappointment. Maybe that was right, but he was also setting himself up for a shot at hope. All he needed was one conversation with All Might.

Nobody messaged him during dinner, so afterward he browsed the mostly empty inboxes of people he'd already messaged, just as something to do. A few people had blocked him. Fortunately, nobody posted about what he'd messaged them. If his desperation got out, his classmates would never let him live it down.

Izuku slept poorly - every couple hours, he woke up and checked his messages again. Replies from All Might's American friends came in, all negative. He hardly left his room the next day and spent another night restless, making him distracted and tired in school on Monday. Between classes, he checked his phone for more replies. Part of him wanted to ask his English teacher if his translation worked, but she might gossip and word of his plan would reach the other students.

After the first few days, the replies tapered down. Izuku stayed up every night in front of his computer, refreshing Twitter again and again, tears in his eyes at the lack of response. He knew All Might was a busy, in-demand hero, but one short conversation shouldn't have been too much to ask!

Inko entered his room one night, bringing a plate of daifuku, which he used to love as a kid. "Honey, I'm worried. You hole up in your room online every day and that's not good for you. I can tell what you're looking at is upsetting you and I wish you would tell me what's going on. Maybe I can help." She set the plate down on his desk.

Izuku picked up a daifuku. "It's nothing. I just want to be somebody, be a hero, even though I don't have a Quirk. Maybe if All Might says I can be a hero, then I really can, so I'm trying to talk to him - sending fan mail, reaching out on Twitter, and hanging out on All Might forums and talking about my problems there." Izuku wanted to tell her all he'd done, but she wouldn't understand.

"Honey, not everybody has to be a hero, putting themselves in danger all the time. You can still be a good person and have success and happiness in life without punching villains. This All Might thing is turning into an obsession. Why don't we go watch some TV together in the living room?"

Izuku wanted to say no. What if he missed an important message? But he figured since no important messages had come in so far, he could wait a little. He plopped the daifuku in his mouth, grabbed the plate, and followed Inko into the living room.

Every channel displayed another show dealing with Quirks - hero news, Quirk-testing game shows, action movies about fictional heroes. Eventually she found a channel showing old movies from before Quirks appeared on Earth and the two watched an ancient romantic comedy. Izuku tried to pay attention to the screen and Inko, but his mind was back in his room refreshing Twitter.

During a commercial break, he told Inko he needed to use the bathroom, then sprinted to his room and refreshed. No more replies. By the time the movie finished, Inko had fallen asleep. Izuku grabbed a blanket from her room and laid it over her.

He headed back to his computer and found nothing again. What if this whole plan didn't work? Was all his effort for nothing? He sent out responses to the people who'd already given him negative replies, begging them to reconsider.

After another week of refreshing, he felt that everybody who was going to reply to him already had. His mind went around in circles to think of what to do next. He could always wait longer, but the idea of sitting on Twitter for the next, say, three months felt awful, and even after three months, nothing might happen. He still hoped for an encounter with All Might, but his hope involving the internet was dying.

The lack of response was yet another way he was a failure. His teachers told him that to make up for not having a Quirk he had an "analytical mind," but now that his Twitter plan was failing he doubted he even had that. All his previous fan mails were a waste of time, too. His eyes welled up with tears. He had no control over his own life. These strangers on the internet didn't want to help him. All Might couldn't be reached, so all Izuku could do was sit around and mope. He wasn't ready to give up on life completely, but nothing about each morning made him look forward to the day in front of him.


	3. Chapter 3

Izuku was a ghost, lifelessly haunting his old pathways at school and home. Every time he thought he'd hit his lowest point, Bakugou and his friends would beat him up or just tell him what a shitty, worthless subhuman he was. He started asking himself why he did normal things. Why did he eat? Because hunger felt worse, and he didn't want Inko to worry too much. He ended up making her worry anyway because he lost weight. Why did he go to school? So that adults like Inko or his teachers didn't bother him for truancy. Why did he shower? Mostly he didn't, until somebody commented. Then he would get embarrassed and shower that night.

Bakugou's voice stuck in Izuku's head, telling Izuku how useless he was. Bakugou was right. It wasn't like Izuku could get All Might to tell him otherwise. As the hope to reach All Might through Twitter dried up, a new hope replaced it: that one day villains would attack him. Then he wouldn't have to go through the motions of school and life anymore because he'd be in the hospital or dead.

Inko kept trying to drag him places. Izuku usually found an excuse not to go, but sometimes he complied to throw her a bone. They would go to the aquarium or shopping or to eat at his favorite restaurant. Once he attended a meeting for Quirkless kids. Most of them were under ten and he felt awkward. The lack of Quirkless adults made him feel worse about his future. None of the outings helped him. He knew only one thing would let him live again: All Might telling him that he could become a hero.

In the evenings, Izuku and Inko watched television when she could make him leave his room. At first, she avoided any shows with Quirks or heroes, but eventually she asked if he would be okay watching superhero shows. Izuku shrugged. It didn't matter to him.

* * *

Inko and Izuku sat on the couch, watching the nightly news. As usual, All Might made the news for saving a boy from a villain attack. The villain was a sludge monster who took over people's bodies. All Might defeated it by using the wind from his punches to funnel it into a soda bottle. Out of habit, Izuku went over the details in his head to write down later, but he knew he wouldn't actually bother. Getting lost in analyzing a hero fight was nice, even if he didn't feel the same excitement anymore.

The reporter showed clips of All Might's earlier rescues that week in order to compare them. Izuku noticed a background detail that made him sit up straight and move to the edge of his seat.

The laundromat All Might caught the sludge monster in front of was the same laundromat All Might stopped a robber's truck in front of three days earlier.

Another shot showed All Might punching the ground to send shock waves through the body of a villain who spread herself in a thin sheet across a parking lot. The parking lot he punched was only four blocks away from the laundromat. Three fights in the same area might be a coincidence… but it might not.

Izuku felt all the missing energy from the past month come rushing back. Hope! He had hope to talk to All Might again! He'd settle once and for all whether he could become a hero. Izuku finished watching the news story, then told Inko that he needed to do something important and raced to his room.

First he skimmed recent articles about All Might, writing down locations, times, and dates in his notebook, and looked for patterns. After three months' worth of stories, his excitement dipped into despair again. It seemed All Might patrolled throughout Japan and busted villains 24/7. Did he even sleep? Not everything was known about his Quirk, so maybe he didn't. Izuku wondered if he was barking up the wrong tree. Maybe he _couldn't_ meet All Might through running into him.

Izuku already felt his brief hope being snatched away from him. Frustrated, he clicked on a hero forum to take his mind off his fruitless hunt. He went to the "sightings" subforum out of curiosity and clicked the top thread. The details were different than what he'd noted from news sources. The poster wasn't just fabricating a story, because three other well-known users backed them up.

Of course! The official news wouldn't want any criminals doing what Izuku was doing - trying to find when and where All Might patrolled. A villain could use that information to avoid him.

Izuku found himself smiling once again. It would be harder to search through the sightings subforum for usable information, especially since people lied for status, remembered wrong, or didn't include enough data. But the task could be done.

He spent the rest of the evening compiling information. He would have to read more in order to get a fuller understanding, but it appeared All Might stuck mostly to the same areas and times. Even better, All Might's zone included the area around Aldera Middle School. He'd fought villains on the same roads where Izuku walked home!

Inko peeked in Izuku's room to let him know it was time to sleep. Izuku prepared for bed, lay under his covers, and counted to 600. Every time he heard a noise indicating Inko was awake, he restarted his count. Once he felt sure she was asleep and therefore wouldn't hassle him if she saw light under his door, he turned the computer back on.

A clearer picture of All Might's activities formed as he gathered data deep into the night. All Might only fought crime three hours every day. On one hand, Izuku was disappointed to learn that All Might wasn't the unstoppable 24/7 force against evil Izuku thought he was. On the other, it was impressive that he managed to conquer crime and be the Symbol of Peace in so few hours.

During the first two of All Might's usual hours, Izuku was normally in school. Instead of taking the normal ten minute walk home, Izuku could hang around All Might's territory for the final hour. If Izuku could reach All Might's crime fights fast enough, he could have a few words with All Might. Izuku could finally learn whether he had any hope of becoming a hero. Heck, he was desperate enough to cling onto All Might's leg if All Might tried to leave without him.

Izuku ended up only getting an hour of sleep before his alarm woke him up and he had to face Inko during breakfast. He told her he'd joined a new group of friends he wanted to hang out with more, so he'd be an hour late coming home. He hated to lie to Inko, but she just wouldn't understand. She loved him, but she gave up on him as a hero long ago.

The look on her face made Izuku feel like a bowling ball weighed down his intestines. She looked as hopeful as Izuku had been when he'd seen the laundromat twice behind All Might. "I'm so glad you're making friends!" she said. "You can invite them over any time, just let me know. Tell me about them - what are their names?"

Seeing her like that made him want to call off his plan. Inko had been there for him his whole life, while heroes never saved him. But ever since he first saw that YouTube video of All Might saving those people from burning rubble with a smile, he had known: it was hero or nothing.

"Well, there's Hirofumi, he's pretty funny, and there's Namio, his Quirk is to take out his eyes but they're still attached by stretchy nerves." Izuku went on about his classmates in a light tone, mentioning the ones who had ignored him since she knew his bullies' names. He smiled, trying to ignore how awful he felt. All this lying would be worth it if All Might told him he could be a hero, and if All Might didn't, what did anything matter?


	4. Chapter 4

After school, Izuku wandered around All Might's territory until he found a good intersection. Massive roads and plenty of foot traffic meant a higher chance that a criminal would be around, especially one of those "rampage" criminals who wanted media attention. Izuku considered waiting by the laundromat from the news, but forum posts made him think that was just a two time occurence. He sat on the base of a pillar near the entrance to a bank.

Izuku rotated through hero websites with "sightings" pages on his phone. He also looked through a couple of general Musutafu forums. After the hour ended, he lingered for a few more minutes in case All Might stayed out late, then headed home.

Inko hugged him and asked if he had fun. Once again, he felt terrible lying to her. Less terrible than last time, though. He told her the details of a fake baseball game, making himself out to be an average player.

For the first time in over a month, Izuku spent time working out in his room. He felt the energy and drive again. If he had a chance at becoming a hero, he needed to be in top physical shape. The idea of barely missing All Might because he was out of shape made him push his muscles harder.

Three days later, a forum reported a villain sighting at the right time and place. Two villains were working together to rob jewelry and electronics stores. One of them used a Quirk that let him teleport small, nearby objects to him. The other, a bodyguard, had a generic strength Quirk and saber teeth.

Izuku ran to the jewelry store the poster had mentioned, a giant smile on his face. When he got there five minutes later, panting, police cars were just arriving, but he didn't see the villains anywhere. Of course - they wouldn't just stick by that one store. He took out his phone to look for updates. A couple of other people had seen the villains, who were now on the run, two minutes from Izuku's location and increasing. He took off after them.

After another mile of pursuit, bobbing through dense crowds, Izuku had to stop again and walk. He could only run so far after a month of sitting around. The sightings subforum was full of posts about the new villains, who'd made it even further from Izuku.

A post appeared about All Might arriving to fight the villains. Izuku tried to run again but only lasted half a minute before he had to return to walking. All Might worked fast - by the time Izuku arrived, even the police cars were gone. Members of the forum talked to each other about how awesome the encounter was. One of them had taken a blurry phone photo of All Might. Izuku saved the photo to the collection of amateur All Might photos he'd started as a kid. Something about regular people seeing their hero warmed his heart, and his heart needed the heat.

The next two All Might sightings during the right hour were too far away for Izuku to reach, which frustrated the heck out of him. He ran every day, pushing himself farther each time so he wouldn't miss out again.

A week later, Izuku heard about another villain sighting that he could actually get to. With the two sightings only a week apart, life felt full of possibility. He would get that conversation with his hero any day now. This time, instead of a thief, it was a rampaging villain who nobody could miss. Her Quirk let her turn into animals. In the form of an elephant, she was barrelling down the streets of Musutafu.

Izuku sprinted through the crowds to the elephant's location. Her story had already been picked up by the local news, making it easier for him to find her. She could make a long battle for All Might, long enough for Izuku to get there. Plenty of animals had the speed to run away or the size to hide. She could turn into a tardigrade and lay low until the right opportunity came along to become a polar bear behind All Might's back. Nobody could _defeat _All Might, of course, but she could at least stall him.

The crowds thickened as he ran closer. In the gaps between heads, Izuku could make out All Might with a tiger in a chokehold. An awed grin spread on Izuku's face; there he was, his idol in the flesh. The tiger disappeared, replaced by a goshawk, flapping to the sky. All Might captured it in his hands and jumped away while Izuku was still half a block distant.

The street roared with applause and cheers, though Izuku could barely muster a half-hearted clap. Sure, he wanted All Might to win, but... did he have to win so quickly?

Still, the hope within Izuku surged. If he could get a little bit closer every time, then soon he would meet his hero. Another reason to work out more.

He didn't get close to the next fight in time, and the hero turned out to be Mt. Lady instead of All Might. Izuku didn't let that failure get in the way of his goal. He discovered over the next month that he'd gotten lucky the first two times with All Might arriving at all. So many heroes patrolled the area that any given villain was likely to be taken out by a different hero.

As he ran more during his free time, he expanded the range of where he could run to find All Might. No matter how often he trained, All Might still eluded him. He found he could outrun his bullies better, but sometimes he decided to stay and fight even though they always beat him down with their Quirks. Every month he would get one or two All Might sightings to fire him up and keep his hope alive.

Classmates teased him often about how he still wanted to get into UA. It hurt for so many people to dislike him, but he had a secret card up his sleeve: he wasn't going to use _their_ opinions to decide on becoming a hero. He was going to use All Might's.

As the months dragged closer to the entrance exam, all his near misses started to feel more frustrating than inspiring. No matter what he did, how far or fast he ran, he could never catch up to his hero. Was this another bad idea, like trying to contact All Might through the people he tweeted?

The week before the entrance exam, Izuku found a villain sighting closer than ever. From the description, Izuku already knew the villain's name. Moonfish must have broken out of prison again. The authorities could never find enough evidence for major crimes to lock him in Tartarus, but it was only a matter of time, especially with all his escapes.

When Izuku reached Moonfish, All Might was still fighting him. A giant crowd had gathered. Metal tendrils stuck out of Moonfish's teeth. They wrapped around All Might, digging into his ribs. Izuku tried to get closer, but the crowd stood packed tight to watch the fight, while still giving Moonfish plenty of distance.

All Might flexed his muscles, bursting from Moonfish's cage. He grabbed the metal spikes and used them to toss Moonfish into the ground. While All Might beat up Moonfish, Izuku jogged around the circumference of the crowd, but he couldn't find a single opening.

He hated to impose on random people, but he needed to reach All Might. He tapped the shoulder of a man with a three foot neck. "Can I get past you?" He asked.

"No way, I got here first. Why should I move?"

Izuku sighed and kept moving. Three police cars and an armored van arrived on the road opposite the fight. The crowd moved to accommodate them and Izuku dashed for the opening. By the time he got there, the police had Moonfish bound. Izuku raced for All Might in the center of the intersection, but he arrived too late. All Might jumped into the sky and disappeared.

He was so close. If only the stupid crowd weren't in the way, he could have run up to All Might as soon as Moonfish was incapacitated. He wondered if he would ever get to All Might early enough. How long would he have to wait? He had already waited months with this tactic; would it be years? A decade of chasing All Might sounded unbearable, but this was his best shot.


	5. Chapter 5

On the drive to the UA entrance exam, Inko told him not to pin all his hopes on making the hero course. She didn't know what she was talking about. If he was going to be a hero, he had to get in. All Might had studied there, after all.

On the way inside, a cute girl stopped him from tripping. She said tripping was a bad omen, but surely _talking_ to a _girl_ was a good one. The girls back at Aldera Junior High had given him a wide berth except when insulting him in passing.

Present Mic himself explained the rules of the practical exam. Even after running to see so many fights, being in the presence of a hero still excited Izuku. Sitting next to Bakugou sucked, though. Present Mic said students from the same middle school wouldn't compete against each other, so there was only so much Bakugou could do to hinder Izuku. The three giant robots on the screen looked tough, but with all the running he'd done he figured he was fit enough to defeat a couple.

Some jerk interrupted Present Mic to insult Izuku in front of thousands of kids. Izuku tried to make himself look smaller. Present Mic answered the kid's question about the fourth robot, which served as an obstacle and didn't count for any points.

A few prospective students made fun of him before the test. He tried to ignore them. The test was what mattered, not their dumb opinions. He considered himself an expert by then at not letting people get to him.

The gates opened and Izuku walked in. The others in his group ran off to fight the giant robots. When he saw them up close, looking like walking tanks, he realized he couldn't hope to defeat something that size in a straight fight. Maybe he could sneak up on one and look for an off switch? The exam timer ticked down in his head.

He walked behind a robot focused on another kid. Massive metal sheets protected its limbs and torso, but the joints looked weaker. Before Izuku could climb onto it, the robot fell backward and he scrambled to get out of the way. The boy who'd interrupted Present Mic's speech raced off around a fake building with super speed.

Another robot jumped out at Izuku. Its arm knocked him over. He didn't know what to do, so he stood up and punched one of its metal sheets, but all he got were bloody knuckles. It lashed its scorpion tail at his side, pushing him to the ground again. Only a minute left and he'd been worse than useless.

Right as the robot was about to clobber him in the head, it sagged and fell to the ground. A girl's voice from thin air said, "You just have to find the button to turn them off. For these two-pointers, it's on the back of the head under the metal armor."

Izuku saw a pair of shoes not attached to any legs running off. Must have been an invisibility Quirk. He'd just talked to another girl, he supposed, but it wasn't as exciting as the first time. He ran around in random directions, desperate to take down a single robot. After everything he did, how could he still fail to become a hero?

He sped around a corner and saw a monstrous robot towering over the nearby buildings. The zero-pointer, thrashing as an obstacle, with a massive head with six red camera eyes and a long, thick neck. No way could he get past that thing. He was about to turn around and try one last time to find a two-pointer to shut off when he noticed a girl trapped under some rubble. The same girl who had helped him up when he tripped. She was so close to the robot, it could kill her!

Izuku didn't _want_ to rush at the zero-point robot, but his legs ran in spite of his mind's instructions. There weren't any other heroes doing anything about the situation, so he had to protect an injured future classmate. He drew back his fist and punched the robot's leg. Once again, his hand hurt. The robot kicked him away with a green metal foot as big as his bathroom. He rolled over twice on the landing, cutting up his face, arms, and legs and twisting his ankle. The girl was still struggling in the rubble.

He started to lift himself to a standing position to try again when he heard Present Mic's voice. "It's all over!"

Recovery Girl walked through the prospective students. She gave gummies to the healthy ones and kissed the injured ones, like Izuku. The fact that he didn't score a single point kept running through his head. His path to heroism, destroyed. Maybe if he'd received that encouragement from All Might, he might have figured out how to turn off the robots faster.

He tried to keep smiling as Inko drove him home. He kept smiling for the next week, working out to take his mind off his horrible performance. Not a single point, and he couldn't even help the girl, so how could he be a hero now? Maybe his performance on the written portion was so stellar it made up for no points on the practical… but he had a feeling he barely passed it. He'd done what All Might would have wanted - put his all into the test. There was nothing more he could do.

Inko passed him an envelope, which he opened to find a simple rejection letter. He couldn't maintain his smile anymore. Even though he'd been preparing for this outcome, tears gushed down his cheeks.

Inko put her arm around his shoulder. "Honey, don't let this get you down. There are plenty of other paths in life you can take." She squeezed him tight against her. "I'm here for you and I'm sorry."

Izuku hugged her, crying into her shoulder.

She whispered to him, "It's understandable that you feel awful. This won't be the end of the world. Let's go out to your favorite ramen place, and after that, we can buy the latest All Might action figure." She started crying as well.

Maybe he didn't need the approval of UA to be a hero - it wasn't _UA_ he spent the school year chasing. Only the Symbol of Peace could bring him peace. Applying to UA had been a mistake.

If he couldn't even pass the entrance test to UA, he couldn't be a conventional hero. Most heroes faced worse all the time. He would have to change up his tactics, do things that other heroes never thought of because they relied on their Quirks.

With school out and his dreams of UA shattered, he had all the time in the world to run after All Might. He waited outside for all three of All Might's hero hours. On day two, a forum reported a villain in range.

He was done settling for arriving late time after time. The villain was five blocks away. Instead of sticking to the sidewalk, he darted through the mochi shop across the street from him. A door marked "employees only" brought him to a storeroom where a manager sat in front of a computer. She started to yell at Izuku, but Izuku dashed through the exit to the back of the building. At least thirty seconds shaved off his time.

A library stood in his way next. He ran through aisles of books. A librarian caught up to him to tell him running wasn't allowed, but he just kept going until he left the building. He hated to disturb all the people reading, but this was the only way he could get those precious words from All Might.

After running through an alley and the lobby of an apartment building, Izuku arrived at the scene. All Might was finishing up a fight against a guy with giant cilia all over his body.

Just like before, the crowd blocked Izuku's path. He stood and considered, muttering to himself about the awful thing he planned to do. Really, breaking a couple of rules and social niceties was okay in pursuit of the ultimate question of whether he could become a hero. If the answer was no, he was worthless and a couple acts of rudeness couldn't make him any _worse_. And if the answer was _yes_, it was worth a few annoyed strangers for a new hero to enter the scene. He'd quickly save more than enough people to make up for it.

His hand shook. He was so used to not making a fuss or standing up for himself. Well, look how far that got him. Things would have to change if he still wanted to be a hero with no Quirk and a failure on the UA exam.

Quickly, then, like peeling off a Band-Aid.

Izuku shoved the man in front of him to the side. A large part of him wanted to apologize profusely and run away, but instead he pushed a man and a woman apart and ducked into the gap. What had he done, handling a woman like that? No time to think about it. He pried a skinny guy back with his elbows, then pushed the lady in front of him forward.

Izuku emerged from the crowd.

He saw the bottoms of All Might's shoes rising into the air, already too high up to jump and grab. The people he pushed through yelled at him, asking what he thought he was doing. He apologized and ran off.

It had _worked_, though. Running through buildings, shoving people aside, it had all worked. Maybe he was just lucky, but he'd made it closer than ever to reaching All Might. There would always be a crowd since the people near All Might would stop and stare while Izuku was still running toward the incident. Maybe there were even others doing the same thing as Izuku, so just seeing a post on his phone ensured the existence of a crowd. But if he could swallow his politeness and push people aside, he had a chance of hearing the words he needed from All Might and becoming a hero.


	6. Chapter 6

By the end of Golden Week, Izuku hadn't found All Might again, though he had run through more buildings to reach fights involving Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods. He knew darting through "employees only" areas could cause him trouble eventually, but if he could hear All Might's verdict beforehand it wouldn't matter. When he ran after a villain fight, all the insecurities and sadness fell away. He could smile because he had a purpose.

Bullies were just as common in high school as middle school. When he let slip that he wanted to be a hero, the insults began to hit home. "Why do you think you can be a hero if you don't have a Quirk?" they said, or, "If you were a hero, you would have gotten into UA."

They repeated back to him the same things he told himself at night when he couldn't sleep. The other Quirkless kids, whom he sat with at lunch, sometimes joined in, asking why he thought he was better than them.

During math class at the end of his second Wednesday in high school, Izuku felt his chair getting kicked. He turned to look. The teeth inside the smug smile of the boy behind him jumped up and down. Izuku still didn't know the names of the students in all his classes aside from the people he'd shared middle school with. The miasma of depression that hung around school kept him from trying.

"You can't stop me," the boy whispered. "You don't have a Quirk." More kicks.

Izuku turned back to the teacher and tried to focus. He felt like he died every time he entered the school doors. No, earlier, every time he went home from searching for All Might.

He'd liked math in middle school because every good grade felt like a step on the path to becoming a hero. Now he kept up enough to finish his homework but didn't give his all. It didn't help that the teacher never called on him. Was it because he was Quirkless?

A tooth bounced off the back of his neck. Just like in middle school, if he tried to tell the teachers, they sided with the bullies. Izuku's hand crept to his pocket, where he kept his cell phone. He might get in trouble, sure, but he would feel less like shit. More spit-coated teeth knocked into his neck - what an annoying Quirk. Izuku scooted so the back of his chair would block the kid from seeing his hands, since no doubt the kid would tattle if he saw.

Just having the cell phone in his hands under his desk during All Might's heroism hours improved Izuku's mood. A link between him and his favorite hero. All the horrors of class evaporated. The kicks still hit his chair and the teeth still bounced off him, but he barely felt it.

"Hey. Hey, Midoriya, stop ignoring me. Stop ignoring my ol' chompers. Thtoop," whispered the boy behind him. After his last word, a whole mouth's worth of teeth hit Izuku's neck.

Izuku wasn't going to turn around and get a tooth in the eye. He kept scrolling through sightings forums. Even a crazy jerk couldn't get him down. He wished he could feel this way all the time, excited for the future instead of stuck in the miserable present.

He didn't find any villain fights that day. The next day, on his way to his last couple of classes, he walked with his head held high instead of staring at his feet like usual. He sat far away from the tooth Quirk kid. Unfortunately, the kid he sat next to instead used a Quirk that could draw people's eyes to him, so he couldn't pay attention to his phone _or_ the teacher. Including kids from previous days, half the class was bad to sit by.

Two days later, while Izuku was checking his phone on the way to math class, a forum user posted a nearby villain sighting. Izuku pondered what to do. A year ago, he never would have considered skipping class. If he missed roll call enough, his grades would drop, but if he missed seeing All Might, all he lived for would be that much further away.

He needed to do this strategically. Walking out the front doors wouldn't work since the main office was right next to those doors. The secretary might take him to the principal… the principal! He was never afraid of a principal before because he'd never been sent there for misbehaving. Such a strange new feeling. There was a better door by the cafeteria for kids who wanted to go out to lunch. Even though he needed to leave as quickly as possible, he couldn't run, since that would draw attention. He had to act naturally, like he had an off period and wanted a breath of fresh air. His nerves were on fire as he wondered how delinquents managed to do this all the time.

He expected his shaking legs and constant head turns to betray him at any moment, but nobody bothered him. Once outside, he took a moment to recover his nerves, then ran off to see the villain. The new normal was cutting across lawns and dodging through buildings while store owners yelled at him. Sometimes he muttered a "sorry" over his shoulder. Mostly he focused on his task. When he ran, the indignities of Quirkless life washed away from him. He was a future hero, not a high school loser.

Izuku found only Kamui Woods, not All Might. Kamui whipped his branches against a living tornado. Izuku walked back to school.

He contrasted how he felt hero hunting with how he felt at school and couldn't find fault in his choice. Didn't he deserve to be happy sometimes? Happy was almost too small a word. The bliss of searching for All Might and getting closer to confirmation of a heroic future made up for the twisted heartache of the rest of his life enough to keep living. Of course, his mood soon tanked, as it usually did after a superhero chase ended. Another failure to add to a list stretching into space.

When he returned to class, the teacher asked him why he was gone. He mumbled about losing his homework. She shrugged and let him take a seat.

The next time he left, the teacher acted more annoyed. The time after that, she assigned him extra homework. Then a drop in letter grade. Then a half hour of detention. Nothing would stop him from searching for All Might, especially since All Might's heroism hours had decreased, meaning Izuku needed to utilize every minute.

Inko confronted him when she picked him up after detention. "What's going wrong to make you do this when you used to be so good in school? When you come home these days, you always have that frown on your face and your head down. Is something happening with a girl you like? Or a boy?"

"It's nothing." The idea of anybody liking him was so ridiculous that he didn't even try at romance.

"I know that's not true. I'm here for you no matter what."

Izuku looked away. "Okay, it's hero stuff. I just think about how I can never be a hero and I feel awful because my purpose is gone."

Inko tugged the bottom of her shirt. "Accepting your path in life is hard, and I'm sorry I couldn't give you a Quirk. Your dad wanted to be a hero as a kid too, so he probably went through the same thing you're going through." Her hands clenched together, as if in prayer. "You're going to hurt for a while, that's true, but it will pave the way for a more realistic future. I'll do what I can to help you, though. Let's go try out the katsudon at that new restaurant, will that help?"

Izuku doubted it, but to placate her, he agreed. They were still well within All Might's heroism hours when they arrived. Izuku wanted to check his phone, but he couldn't be rude to his _mom_.

Inko wanted to push him down an unbearable path, though. She talked about how much she loved him, but he didn't feel the love anymore. Surely she would understand, once he became a hero, that he had to do what it took. He excused himself to the bathroom halfway through his katsudon and checked his phone.

Bad luck and good luck at the same time: a villain gang was just sighted four blocks east. The small part of him that still protested about being mean to people, Inko in particular, fizzled and died. He ran out to the sidewalk, where it was a straight line to the bank robbing gang. The pity and despair of the meal gave way to excitement.

Once he arrived, he jumped to peek over the shoulders of the crowd and see which hero was beating up the gang. All Might! Izuku shoved people aside without hesitation.

All Might was gone before Izuku reached the front. The crowd dispersed.

Izuku felt awful about missing All Might. If he had just argued with himself less in the bathroom, or taken his phone out earlier! He walked back to the restaurant, where Inko would be mad and his food would be cold.

Inko stood outside with her arms crossed. Izuku walked up to her.

"Where were you? I looked all over the place for you and I was ready to call the _police_ until I saw you walking over here." Tears rolled down her face. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Izuku apologized. Inside, though, he mostly felt bad about missing All Might. He supposed he had lost his feelings toward her. Only two feelings mattered to him now: the general despair of life, and the desire to talk to All Might.


	7. Chapter 7

It was all over every hero forum and the top article on every news site. All Might was a teacher at UA. Izuku knew before he put his socks on in the morning. That explained why All Might hadn't been spending as much time saving people lately.

Izuku decided to fake sick.. Since he'd never done so before, he figured Inko wouldn't suspect. Plus, he had practice lying to her. Izuku stayed in bed until she entered. He moaned to her that he couldn't get up with how nauseous he was feeling, like he would throw up at any moment. She bought it and called the school. Instead of nausea, his gut quivered with excitement.

As soon as Inko left for work, Izuku caught a bus to UA. He had to see if All Might was answering press questions there. Even if he wasn't, Izuku could sneak in and catch All Might during one of his classes.

Several layers of reporters stood between him and the wall surrounding UA. The crowd stretched around into the forest on the sides of the building. He tried to shove them aside. Unlike bystanders watching hero fights, the press stood firm. He wasn't strong enough to push around people who knew what they were doing.

But he had to get in. His phone buzzed about how the media had breached the gate earlier. What if they did so again? A fantasy played before his eyes of him flowing with a stream of cameramen into All Might, who would tell him that even without a Quirk, he could be a great hero.

The walls seemed impenetrable… until the door inside the campus simply opened. Reporters pushed through, but no matter how much Izuku grabbed and elbowed, he couldn't gain an inch. A few fruitless minutes later, the police arrived and dragged the reporters who'd made it in off the campus. Izuku didn't even catch a glimpse of All Might. He was better off chasing fights.

* * *

After his failure with the reporters, he muttered to himself even more, mulling over what he could have done. Lunch, classes, and time at home — any moment he wasn't feeling the rush of chasing a villain fight — were opportunities for contemplation.

Could he have used some kind of weapon to get through? Not with all the unknown Quirks. He wouldn't even make it to All Might without being mistaken for a villain and captured. Maybe if he had done something to distract them — to make a bigger scene than the one they had shown up for — he could have sneaked in. Throwing around their cameras might have worked in a pinch, since he had no time to set up anything bigger.

The teachers watched him more during the final two periods, but he had improved at evading them. A couple weeks after the press incident, he found his biggest payload yet on the forums. Somebody leaked information from Hero Network to the public, including the current villain attacks and which heroes were assigned to them. Izuku stood up and the math teacher shouted at him to stop. He ignored her and raced out of the school, no longer bothering to avoid the front doors when he knew he ran faster than the office staff.

A few streets later, a hospital stood between him and the All Might battle. He'd barged through all sorts of buildings before, but a hospital? Could he still be a hero if he shoved through a hospital?

A question to ask All Might. What if this was his big chance?

He burst through the doors and sped down the hallways. A plump old lady in an electric wheelchair slowly rolled down the hall, clutching an IV stand. Without thinking, he shoved her chair to the side, causing the IV stand to crash to the ground and ripping the needle out of her arm. She screamed, but Izuku had no time to sit and ponder. He needed to keep running.

A team of doctors hurried past with a gurney. Izuku elbowed one of them and they all bumped into each other, knocking the gurney into a wall. Izuku ran out the back door.

He was so close to reaching All Might in time. When he jumped up to grab All Might's leg, he touched a shoe. But still, he failed. The happiness of the chase dissipated and he was left thinking about his un-heroic actions. He wished he could find All Might again to distract him from his thoughts, but nothing new showed up on the hero forums. He'd made that old lady bleed, and who knew what he'd done to the guy in the gurney. What kind of person was he?

Maybe he was doing awful things, but he still had a chance to change. If All Might told him he could be a hero, he wouldn't need to hurt anybody.


	8. Chapter 8

Forums and news sites buzzed with the latest story: Hero Killer Stain had paralyzed Ingenium. It hurt Izuku's soul to read about. This guy was targeting not just people, but _heroes_. All Might released a statement denouncing Stain and his philosophy, focusing on how his videos were popular with younger people. Izuku felt despair for his generation, that anybody would agree with a man like Stain.

Izuku dyed his hair blond that day, in honor of All Might. Nobody would mistake _him_ for a Stain fan. Inko was shocked when she saw, but acted supportive. She told him she worried a lot about him, but if changing his hair color made him happy, she was glad he finally found something.

Stain's actions bugged Izuku through the rest of the night. All Might hated Stain too, so maybe Izuku could curry All Might's favor if he could hurt Stain somehow. A plan formed in his mind to knock Stain out, then tip the police. If All Might spoke positively about the anonymous tipper afterward, he would come forward. Then he'd get All Might's praise and finally have the chance to ask All Might some questions.

He told Inko he wanted to try robotics as a hobby — that if he couldn't be a hero, he could at least make support items. This came with a request for money so he could buy supplies. Inko cried and told him she was so happy he had a direction in life.

All night Izuku worked on his plan. He charted Stain's path, figuring out where Stain would likely strike next. With the supplies he'd purchased, he crafted explosives with an electric switch triggered by a remote radio detonator. A lifetime of following Bakugou around had given him an appreciation for explosions. He also put together a rough costume. The next day, he slept during his classes. A couple teachers gave him a hard time, but this wasn't a high school where teachers cared about their students.

When the bell rang announcing the end of class, Izuku rushed home and grabbed his bombs. He took a train to Stain's territory. He'd found a list of heroes that Stain had publicly accused of not being true heroes. The one in the area with the easiest costume to make on his own was Native — all fabric and wig, no crazy props. One night's work hadn't given him a perfect recreation, but it looked good enough from a distance. Izuku didn't plan on letting Stain get close.

He chose an alley between an empty, concrete parking garage and an out of business bicycle shop with brick walls. Nobody but Stain would get hurt. He placed old newspapers over each bomb so they wouldn't stand out. Then he donned his Native costume and waited.

He kept himself occupied with his phone and the hero forums. Frustratingly, All Might fought two villains whom he could have run after had he stayed near his school. At midnight, he decided to go home. He'd already used a portable charging battery on his phone and it was running low again. Izuku didn't want to stand around with only his thoughts.

A noise sounded from above. He looked up just in time to see Stain leaping from a rooftop for him, sword drawn. Izuku's face prickled with adrenaline. He sprinted back through the alley, his head turned to watch Stain. His fingers clutched the detonator. If this didn't work perfectly, if the bombs didn't go off or if Stain caught him beforehand, he could die.

Stain's sword slashed inches from his back. The first bomb exploded. The noise rattled Izuku's ears. As Izuku had hoped, Stain stopped to stare at the explosion, giving Izuku precious seconds. A wave of heat hit Izuku's legs, almost tripping him. The next bomb exploded between him and Stain. It knocked Izuku forward onto the tar. The Native costume ripped and he skinned his knees. His ears rang.

Behind him stood a wall of rubble — concrete chunks from the parking garage with rebar sticking out. Stain was no doubt trying to climb it. Izuku pushed the button for the bomb next to the wall he'd seen Stain furthest from, so the explosion would only knock him out.

Izuku ran into the parking garage, climbed to the third floor, and peered down. If Stain wasn't there, Izuku was as good as dead.

Stain lay with a brick next to his head. His swords were scattered across the ground, one of them in two pieces. Nothing on his body looked broken. Izuku called the cops on a burner phone, letting them know Stain's location, then set the phone on the ground.

Down on the first floor, rubble blocked the bottom half of the window, so Izuku stood on his toes to look at Stain more closely. Stain was still breathing, thank goodness. Izuku hadn't murdered him. Several cuts marked his face, oozing blood. That wasn't great, but the police would be able to treat him.

Izuku changed back into his normal clothes, then took the last train home. When he sneaked inside, he saw Inko sleeping on a chair facing the door. At least he hadn't caught her awake. A plate of cookies sat outside his bedroom door. He tried one and it tasted so stale, it must have been left out the night before. He vaguely remembered a knock on his door when he was making bombs, but obviously he wasn't going to let Inko in _then_. He refreshed the news, hoping for a story about his exploits, until he fell asleep at his computer.


	9. Chapter 9

"Let's take a day off," said Inko the next day after Izuku woke up late. "School can be stressful and we need a family day, just you and me. I called off work."

"Sure," said Izuku. He hadn't had the chance to shower and grime from his encounter with Stain coated his arms and face.

She set out a large breakfast for the two of them: salmon, rice porridge, miso, eggs, sausages, natto, and bacon. "I called up Hisashi and he said he can get some time off work next week. Then we can all be a family together, maybe take a vacation. Doesn't that sound fun?"

"What's going on?" asked Izuku, rubbing his eyes. He worried she had an inkling of what he'd done.

She paced as she spoke. "I'm so worried about you. You spend all your time either in your room or going out who knows where. None of the friends you mention ever visit or even walk home with you. You've been behaving awfully, both toward me and your teachers, but you look so sad all the time and I don't want to make it worse. Except sometimes when you come home from your 'friends' you look _too_ happy… Izuku, are you involved in drugs?"

Izuku backed up two steps. He considered: if he said it was drugs, she wouldn't look further into what it really was, but she would restrict his movements.

He decided to trust in his care in hiding evidence. "What? No, mom, it's not drugs, and you can have me tested if you want."

It wasn't physical drugs, but in a way she was right. When he chased after All Might, he felt "high." All the miserable, banal problems of his everyday life faded away before his ultimate quest. He couldn't live without another hit of the promise of heroism letting him feel _good_ about himself again.

"Then what's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm just hanging out with other Quirkless kids at my high school. None of us go to each other's houses. It makes me feel good to be around people who like me, and who are like me, instead of this whole terrible life where I can never be a hero."

"Your friends aren't villains, are they?"

The words turned his stomach and Izuku curled his lips. "I would _never_ share my life with villains. Nobody hates the kind of people who would oppose All Might more than me."

"I feel so helpless, Izuku." Sadness filled her voice. "I just wish there were something I could _do_."

"You're doing good just by being my mom. Unless you can make me a hero or get me in touch with All Might, that's all there is."

"I think these new friends of yours are a bad influence on you, but I don't want you to be miserable all the time."

Izuku picked up a mouthful of natto and rice with his chopsticks. "We just hang out. It's the only thing that makes me happy."

"What about your robotics?"

It took a moment for Izuku to remember his lie. "I guess so, yeah. Maybe I can go make tools for heroes."

"If I got you a tutor, we could homeschool you and teach you how to make support items better. We'd have to get a smaller house, but we could manage. Would you like that?"

"No, don't bother with that. I'm still figuring out what I want to be."

Izuku excused himself to the bathroom after breakfast and checked his phone. Stain's arrest made the top story. Stain was still knocked out when the police arrived. They put him in Tacodana Villain Hospital. His manifesto became the most watched video on YouTube in Japan.

Izuku made the news, too, as the anonymous tipper who had knocked Stain out. Inko called Izuku back before he could check the reactions. He felt like a real hero. He'd taken down a villain, and a famous one at that, all without using a Quirk. Bakugou had never done something so useful with _his_ explosions. A pocket of warmth flared in his despair-cooled heart. _When I meet All Might, I'll bring it up as evidence that I can be a hero without a Quirk._

Inko noticed his change in mood. He responded to her questions by saying he'd read about Stain getting captured and was happy no more heroes would be hurt. It was true.

The two of them watched more movies together. Inko fussed with his hair like she did when he was a toddler. He noticed tears forming in her eyes.

They drove to the mall after a couple movies, where Inko focused on electronics stores. Izuku could tell her cheer was forced. He kept just enough focus to give credence to his earlier lie. When Inko walked ahead of him, he sneaked glances at shops for replica hero costumes. Some sold Stain masks already.

She offered him a reward: if he stayed in his classes, she would get him expensive equipment for his new hobby. Izuku nodded, knowing he would still skip out to chase All Might.

Throughout the day, he peeked at his phone to see what people thought of his actions. A couple of the people who never responded to his requests to talk to All Might on Twitter were willing to talk about him as the vigilante. Stain fanboys got mad about him. Their anger fueled his good mood. Some people wondered if he was a villain trying to protect his "turf." Those posts made him sick. Most people were glad another villain had been taken down, especially such a high profile one. All Might himself posted a response video, but Izuku didn't get enough time alone to watch it.

One comment in particular made him cry. It said that a non-pro defeating Stain proved ordinary people could be heroes. He repeated the words in his head when he needed to act happy for the latest gizmo Inko showed him.

The two of them stayed up late playing board games and eating ice cream. Izuku didn't bother chasing any villain fights, figuring he deserved a break after defeating Stain. He headed to his room for the night, happy about his first act of heroism.

Once he sat in front of his computer, he opened the video of All Might's response. He thought, _This could indirectly be the words from All Might I need._

All Might shone like a spotlight into his dark room. "I am here… on your screen!" he said. Izuku sat on the edge of his seat, rubbing his hands together in excitement. "Today, Chizome Akaguro, known by the alias 'Stain', was apprehended by the police. He is currently in Tacodana Villain Hospital. An anonymous citizen knocked him out with explosives and called in a tip. Stain and the person who helped capture him give us two problems: people who see Stain as a martyr and want to imitate him, and people who want to become vigilantes and stop villains on their own.

"For those who would follow in Stain's footsteps: you are not helping society as your master has claimed. You are shoving vulnerable people into the mercy of criminals. You say heroes have lost their ideals of saving people, yet you don't live up to those very ideals." From his word choice, Izuku could tell a speechwriter wrote it. All Might wouldn't make a video saying things he didn't believe, though, so the sentiment was still authentic.

"Now, for those wanting to become vigilantes against villains… I encourage you to obtain a hero license through the proper channels. You're putting yourself and others in serious danger. Villains will not hesitate to murder an idealist. In addition, heroes know who the villains are. We know how to use force against them. Random citizens can easily pick the wrong target or kill somebody whom they could have captured instead, making the aspiring hero into a kind of villain.

"I think whoever defeated Stain made a poor choice by setting off dangerous explosives in the middle of the city. If they came forward, the police force would have no choice but to arrest them. Leave the villains to the heroes!

"Now don't forget to go above and beyond. Plus ultra!"

Tears formed in Izuku's eyes. All Might wasn't impressed by the anonymous hero. Maybe he would be if they could just have a _conversation_ and Izuku could _explain_. He could try doing something else big and flashy to get All Might's attention in the future, but this time was a bust.

Izuku stayed in his classes for a week, making Inko proud. He felt despair over running to find fights. No matter what he did, even barging through a hospital, he could never catch up to All Might. Suicide crossed his mind, but he dismissed it for the moment because he felt there still had to be a way.

Hisashi arrived. He acted even more out of touch than Inko. Izuku chalked it up to the constant business trips giving him no idea what Izuku was like.

At the end of the week, Izuku saw the news: Stain had died in Tacodana Villain Hospital. The hospital staff explained to the press that only trained anesthesiologists can tell what's needed to subdue a man's brain enough to put him to sleep without murdering him.

Did that mean, then… was Izuku a villain? He hid his tears, since he didn't want to cry over the death of a lousy villain.

Only villains murdered people.

All he'd wanted to do was knock Stain out for the police! That was an impossible dream, though.

Izuku added it to his list of questions for All Might: can a boy who's killed somebody still become a hero?


	10. Chapter 10

The news on Izuku's phone called him to action. Two students had been kidnapped in the freshman class at UA: Tokoyami Fumikage and Bakugou. Both had placed in the top four in the Sports Festival. The important part for Izuku was that once again, the press swarmed UA.

He skipped school completely to go. This time, nobody would stop him from getting All Might's answers to the questions that burned in his chest.

Just like before, the press offered no openings. He wished he'd gotten some kind of advance warning so he could make a real distraction, maybe with a bomb. Instead, he pushed over every camera around the edge he could find, darting in and out of expensive setups while making sure none of the cameras caught him before they toppled. Cameramen yelled at him but couldn't catch him. Few returned to chasing him the second time they saw him - the perks of having a forgettable face.

Some people got hurt trying to save the cameras Izuku pushed over. Nothing serious, but a few received nasty crushes and lacerations. He considered helping to lift up the cameras he'd knocked over, taking the opportunity to act heroic and to make up for pushing them in the first place. He dismissed the thought. Only reaching All Might mattered.

Even with the outer layer of press running around in a panic, too many people still surrounded UA for him to shove his way to the front.

There had to be another way to get through. He considered trying to climb their backs, but they could fight him off. Then he noticed that while their upper bodies were packed tight, their feet still had space around them. Izuku crawled on his hands and knees, slithering through their legs. A couple reporters gave him sharp kicks, but most didn't notice him. He felt reduced to animal status, not even able to stand upright. The dirt on the cement scuffed his long-sleeved shirt and a reporter floating a foot off the ground dropped a candy wrapper on him._ It'll all be worth it when I get to All Might._ That thought repeated in his head when his elbow dipped into bird poop, when a reporter insulted him, and when his knees ripped.

When he reached the front, he stood up. The newspeople next to him stared at him with shocked expressions - they must not have noticed him approaching. All he had to do was wait until a student entered or exited the building, or until a member of the press broke through.

Neither happened. Izuku stood for hours, jostled and squished by a swarm of human bodies. Hunger and thirst competed in his stomach while he danced from foot to foot, desperate to use the bathroom

When most of the press got bored and left, he peed behind a bush and headed home. If they couldn't get in, neither could he.

Inko confronted him about skipping school. He apologized, saying his friend was having an emergency - she needed help because her dog was giving birth. He could tell Inko didn't believe him, but she didn't press. Maybe she knew by then that he'd never tell her the truth. Hisashi grounded him from visiting any more friends, but Izuku shrugged it off.

Instead of running straight to his computer, Izuku flopped onto his bed, head in the covers. For a year, he had been chasing after All Might, and every plan he enacted failed. All Might was too fast to catch - any villain knew that, so why didn't he? All the knowledge he'd built up about All Might's habits amounted to zero real life success.

Inspiration hit Izuku: if he could somehow get into UA another way, All Might was a sitting target. No more chasing. Izuku bolted to his computer. How much of All Might's class schedule could he glean from the social media accounts of his students and the other UA staff?

By the end of the night, Izuku had memorized the layout of every classroom and was on his way to memorizing every student's name. All Might didn't teach a class of his own. An All Might visit was a special occasion, so his classes were impossible to predict. Most of the time, he helped out with physical and Quirk training, but sometimes he taught a normal class or stopped in to make an announcement. All Might was the first substitute teacher considered in the hero classes.

Izuku could make something out of this.


	11. Chapter 11

All Might retired three days later after defeating All for One.

Izuku's heart was torn out like grass from the dirt, each artery-root causing more pain as it severed. He spent the whole day crying. How could any villain be strong enough to conquer All Might? Interviews revealed the reason for the pattern Izuku had noticed of All Might taking only a couple hours a day to fight villains: All Might's powers had been declining for years.

Izuku faked sick again. Hisashi and Inko told him they knew why he was "sick" and Izuku grunted in response. The only way he was going to school was if he was carried. Why move a single muscle if the sun had gone dim? He was just another dead cell in the world's corpse.

Izuku didn't check the news over the next week because that would require exerting effort. The days piled on him like garbage. He slept the whole time, even though sometimes his eyes were open. Inko made him drink water by threatening to force him to drink.

He didn't want to waste away only because he didn't _want_ anything. Wasting away sounded nice if it happened, though. _Can't have overwhelming sadness in my heart without a heart._ He didn't eat much - when Inko coerced him to the chabudai, he threw his food out when she and Hisashi looked away.

He didn't only feel grief. A small part of him also felt jealousy toward the people who met All Might as a hero, who got to have the peace in their lives that All Might symbolized. What kind of worthless person was Izuku, that he couldn't even obtain a single word from All Might? Izuku was only a murderer and a villain.

Inko told him she was making plans for him to visit a hospital to get better, which got him eating again. He didn't want to have to talk about All Might with a bunch of doctors. Not to mention those hospital beds belonged to the more deserving. The taste of soup at dinner felt separate from him, like his mouth belonged to a different body.

It was too late for Izuku - All Might wasn't a hero anymore, so why did Izuku have to stay alive? When he went to school, if anybody noticed him, it was to beat him up. At home his parents didn't get his need to be a hero. Plenty of people thought Quirkless people didn't deserve to live. On the hero forums, he saw people saying, "If I were Quirkless, I would kill myself."

Izuku figured Bakugou was enjoying life over at UA now that he had been retrieved from the villains. Bakugou had done everything right, with his powerful Quirk making him into a hero. Bakugou was right: if Izuku wanted to be a hero, he would be better off trying to be born with a Quirk in his next life.

Two weeks after All Might retired, Izuku sneaked out of his house at two in the morning. He followed a nearby railroad track, walking in the center. If a train passed, he didn't plan on moving. He reached a tall bridge and stared at the dark river below. No railing held him in place, since the bridge was only for trains. He'd considered writing a note, but couldn't think of anything to say that would make his parents understand.

He sat down on the dusty concrete at the edge of the bridge. Was there any reason not to kill himself now that All Might was no longer a hero?

Yes, in fact, there was.

All Might may have retired, but he still contained the wisdom of a master hero. He would still know if Izuku could become a hero without a Quirk and with a murder on his hands. Izuku just had to live long enough to ask All Might his questions.

Izuku stood up, shivered, and walked back home. When possible, he stayed to the side of the tracks, listening for trains to make sure none would hit him. Not when he still had a part of him ready to survive.


	12. Chapter 12

Izuku hadn't paid much attention to Inko's chatter when he was lying depressed on his bed. Once he realized his purpose still existed, he understood what she was saying. Inko was on a charm offensive. She cooked all his favorite meals, and several new All Might action figures appeared on his desk. "Please, I just want to help you," was her catchphrase.

He didn't show her that he wasn't suicidal anymore. Instead, he kept to himself whenever possible. He didn't eat with the other Quirkless kids anymore; he ate alone. In his notebook, he wrote down details about All Might's classes. He asked Inko for a few dollars here and there, nothing major, just money to purchase a few snacks. But he didn't use the money to buy snacks.

He used the money to buy materials for more bombs.

The fantasy played in his head over and over. It distracted him from class. It made him drop his chopsticks in the middle of meals. It brought him to tears, even in public. UA, with a hole blasted in the outer security wall so tremendous that the glass building wall also shattered. Out of the rubble stepped a confused-looking All Might, who wondered aloud where all this noise and destruction came from. Izuku walked up to him, a nervous grin on his face.

"All Might, I came here because I'm such a huge fan of yours. I've been trying to talk to you for a long time. Can you answer a couple of questions for me?"

"Sure, young man! I'm always happy to meet a fan."

"First, can I get your autograph?" Izuku held out his notebook, which All Might signed with gusto. "What I want to know more than anything is: can a boy without a Quirk become a hero? I've trained and studied so hard." Here Izuku went through a list, which grew with every replay of the fantasy, of things he'd done to prove his resolve to become a hero.

"_Anybody_ can be a hero. I know a thing or two about heroics, and what counts isn't a flashy Quirk or giant muscles - it's a heroic heart. In fact, your persistence proves you're a real hero already. Why don't you join our hero class?" This was when the real life tears started.

"Wait, there's one more thing. I was the one who took down Stain. I just meant to knock him out because you chastised Stain's ideology."

"I only made that speech to discourage copycats from getting in trouble - if everybody went around trying to be a hero, it would be chaos! There's a reason public Quirk use is illegal. But your act? Pure bravery and heroism. I think the other kids could learn a thing or two from being around you."

Izuku hugged All Might, and All Might hugged him back. They walked together back to the class.

"It must have been so hard for you to deal with such discouragement. Going forward, the UA staff will do our best to help you become a great hero."

The class welcomed him, in awe over how hard he had worked to get there, and the fantasy ended.

He ended up making too many bombs, but better that than not enough. He studied more social media posts by students, memorizing the layouts of the classrooms where All Might taught.

* * *

Inko sat with him at the kitchen chabudai, lines on her face and bags under her dead eyes.

"I think there's something…" he paused, like he was too nervous to continue. All part of the act to reach All Might. "I think there's something I want to do in life."

She looked up, her face flashing to surprise and then joy. "I support you no matter what you do. What do you want to be and how can I help?"

"This is going to sound silly."

"You can do anything."

"I want to make videos, like for the news. Videos of big political events, hero battles, even catching footage of rare animals."

"I'm so proud of you! With your eye for detail, you would be really good at that. Is there a journalism club at school?" Tears fell onto her smile. She nudged Hisashi.

"I'm proud of you too," he said.

Izuku fidgeted with his yakitori. "Yeah, I guess I could join, but I'd start off so bad at it. The other kids would make fun of me even more than they already do."

"Let's get you a good camera, okay? Then we can practice at home and watch tutorials together! I can hire a tutor!"

Izuku allowed a smile to creep onto his face. He already had all he needed to make his fantasy come true, except a good camera.

Inko worked her way from pleasantries to excited chatter on their way to the mall. Izuku was reminded of when he'd bought the bomb materials to take down Stain. Some of the supplies from last time had been reused.

If anything went wrong, he could get arrested and not get another shot at meeting All Might. He'd memorized a list of cameras to steer her toward. He needed to be able to leave it outside unplugged, then access the video feed from his smartphone. A few cameras had built-in features for that, and others could be modified to make his setup work.

Izuku wowed Inko with the jargon he'd picked up during his research, and she went with the model he picked.

When they got home, he acted like he was enthusiastically experimenting. The two of them explored YouTube for projects. He told her he enjoyed learning on his own so much he wanted to do that for a while before bringing in a tutor. In his head, Izuku went over the excuses he would use for when she wouldn't see the camera over the next couple of weeks. He figured it shouldn't take longer than that.

When Inko fell asleep, Izuku placed into his backpack his camera, a clear plastic tarp, scissors, a hammer, and some nails. Crumpled newspapers lined the bottom for cushioning so he wouldn't break the camera if he dropped his backpack.

After school the next day, he headed down Dourin Road to UA. He tried to keep his steps normal in case somebody noticed him acting suspiciously.

When he arrived, he set his backpack behind a thicket of bushes. Trees peeked over three sides of the security wall surrounding UA. None of the trees were quite close enough to jump to the wall from. He climbed the tree closest to the entrance and peered into the classrooms. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows were hallways lined with classroom doors. Each classroom had windows facing its hallway, so Izuku could see in. He couldn't make out the rooms on high stories, but he figured at least one of All Might's classes had to be on a lower floor. None of the classrooms visible from his tree matched the ones he'd memorized.

He climbed to the ground, then headed up another tree twenty yards away. Still nothing. He made his way around the building. After an hour, his arms screamed at him and sweat dripped into his eyes. Luckily, nobody saw him. Another hour later, on the opposite side of the building, he saw it: Eraserhead was teaching class 1-A inside on the bottom floor. He recognized every student there from social media.

Izuku thought he was done with crying, but when he saw Bakugou sitting there, his cheeks moistened. It was so unfair that his tormentor got to spend time with All Might while Izuku faced day after day of hellish bullying and no future. At least now, Izuku could make bigger explosions than Bakugou could ever dream of.

Izuku ran to get his backpack, then returned to the tree. He set the camera on a fork in the branches so it looked into the classroom but was still hidden by leaves. Carefully, he let go of it, his hands cupped beneath in case it fell. The camera stayed steady. Izuku cut off a piece of tarp and wrapped it around the camera so it wouldn't fall in a strong wind. He stretched more tarp around the branches above the camera so rain wouldn't ruin the electronics, then nailed the tarp steady. Thanks to the work of several engineers with mad scientist Quirks, the battery would last for a couple of days like this. After that, he'd have to bring it home, charge it, and set it up again.

For the next ten days, he checked his phone every fifteen minutes to see Eraserhead teaching class 1-A. On day eleven, All Might walked through the door, waved at the students, and began lecturing.


	13. Chapter 13

Izuku rushed out of his first class and headed home. The sound of Inko watching TV came from the curtained window. He sneaked through the back door and made it to his room unseen. He stuffed the bombs and detonators in his backpack, careful to ensure they wouldn't go off before their time. Instead of walking back through the house and risking getting caught, he exited through his window.

Sweat dripped down his face on his walk to UA. The whole task didn't feel real - he was going to bomb the school! A year ago, that would have been such a crazy thought. He knew it made him look suspicious, but he couldn't help glancing around him every few seconds, since if anybody knew what he was doing before he arrived, he would go to prison. Happy snippets of his fantasy danced through his mind.

Izuku arrived at UA and made his way to the tree with his camera. When he reached the top, he confirmed that All Might was indeed teaching. Seeing all those kids experiencing what he hadn't - especially Bakugou - put a dent in his hopeful glee.

He placed several linked bombs at the base of the security wall. Just enough, by his calculations, to destroy not only the security wall but the glass wall as well, under the assumption that it was reinforced to deal with all the students' powerful Quirks. After he finished setting everything up, he retreated deep into the forest behind the school. No sense in approaching All Might mangled from his own bombs.

Some remnant of his past self cringed at what he was about to do - heroes didn't lay explosives at a high school. Izuku was so used to silencing that part of him that it barely merited notice.

With sweaty hands, he activated the detonator. Even from a distance, the explosion not only roared in his ears, it vibrated his bones together and made him drop the detonator.

Izuku ran to see what he'd done. The closer he got to UA, the hotter the air became. Smoke assaulted his nose and burned his eyes. His bombs had carved a giant break in the security wall and the glass of half the windows on his side of the building had shattered. The classroom windows were also broken, and the classroom wall had caved in. The ground dipped in a small crater with shards of glass jutting out of the dirt.

Izuku headed to the new opening in the classroom and stared inside. Shards from the broken window ripped at his calves on his way into the hallway. The rubble collapsing inward covered two desks. Based on the layout of the classroom, Tenya Iida and Ochako Uraraka were underneath. Asui Tsuyu dusted herself off the desk in front of Uraraka. Damn - he hadn't meant to blow a hole that big in the wall. Not big enough to hurt the students! And Uraraka had been nice to him. What had he done?

A cacophony filled the air - emergency alarms, screaming, and crying. Most of the nearby students had bloody gashes. Tetsutetsu, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu worked to lift the rubble from the two buried desks. Iida's limp arm showed first. While the others worked frantically to expose more of him, Tsuyu grabbed his wrist with her tongue. After a few seconds, she yanked her tongue back. "He's d-dead, guys. I checked his pulse." Izuku crumpled to his knees. He had murdered an innocent - a hero, even! He was as bad as Stain!

The rubble lifters put their attention toward Uraraka's pile. When Kirishima lifted a particularly large chunk of rock, it came away bloody. Uraraka's head was split down the middle. Izuku screamed in horror. His eyes overflowed with tears and bile burned his throat. This couldn't be happening.

Izuku wanted to get up and step forward, but he couldn't. Todoroki had encased his knees in ice, sealing him to the ground. He hadn't even noticed with the scene in front of him. The students continued to reveal the broken bodies of their two classmates. All Might was nowhere to be found - he must have left the room when Izuku was focused on the corpses.

A couple of kids - Jirou and Ashido - stepped toward Izuku. They were stopped by a voice. "Don't go near him. You don't know what Quirk he has!" Was it Kaminari? No, Mineta. Being assumed to have a Quirk by a hero was nice, but he still felt shocked and nauseated by the dead kids.

Bakugou pushed his way toward the hole to look out. "Is that… Deku!" He shouted the name.

Izuku said, quietly and unsteadily, "I would like to talk to All Might."

"Guys, he's Quirkless. Don't worry about him. I knew this loser in middle school."

"He may be Quirkless, but he also has bombs. Who knows how many more he has?" said Mineta.

"I would like to talk to All Might," Izuku repeated. Focusing on All Might gave Izuku a raft in the storm of emotions and consequences. He saw All Might open the classroom door with Eraserhead, Cementoss, and Nezu behind him.

"He keeps saying he wants to talk to you," said Kaminari to All Might.

Eraserhead stared at Izuku like Izuku had a Quirk. A small corner of his brain again noted how nice it was to be taken seriously. The rest of him vacillated between focus on All Might and horror at the two heroes he'd killed.

All Might stepped out of the hole in the wall. Izuku felt like his fantasy was coming true. More tears welled in his eyes.

"Stop, he could have more bombs," said Eraserhead.

"I don't have any more bombs. You can check me," said Izuku. Police sirens rang in the distance, getting closer.

Cementoss walked up to Izuku and patted his body down. Todoroki withdrew his ice so Cementoss could check Izuku's legs. "No bombs that I can find," he said. He didn't encase Izuku in concrete, but Izuku knew the threat was there if he tried to escape.

"I just want." Izuku's voice hitched. "I want to talk to All Might. I swear I won't hurt anybody. Anybody else."

"I am here," said All Might.

"I have some questions… I've wanted to ask you them for years. Can we talk away from all the other heroes?" He spoke in-between sobs. Izuku didn't want to bare his heart in front of a whole class of heroes, including Bakugou.

This was supposed to be such a happy day, but it wasn't going how he planned at all.

"How about with me, Eraserhead, and Cementoss?" asked All Might. "We can walk and talk."

Izuku nodded. The four of them strolled out the hallway wall and the broken security wall, then walked around the building. Police officers ran over to the group and followed at a distance.

He had to explain before he got to his questions, to make All Might understand. "I've looked up to you my whole life." The words babbled out like when he muttered to himself. "You're the greatest hero ever… you bring everybody hope. So for the past year, I've been trying extra hard to contact you. I messaged all your accounts online, and all the accounts of your friends, and I ran to your fights to try to reach you. Since you said you hated Stain so much, I tried to knock him out to get your approval. I didn't mean to kill him! My life is so miserable because I'm Quirkless, so everybody thinks I'm beneath them. People insult me and beat me up. But even though I'm Quirkless, I want to be a hero like you because you mean everything to me. So I guess my first question is, can someone without a Quirk… become a hero like you? And my second question is, can someone who has killed somebody - killed people - become a hero?"

The heroes glanced at each other, then All Might spoke up. "When I was a hero, I had to deal with villains, at least once a week, who would have murdered me if I didn't have a Quirk. You met some of them, if you were following me like you said. Without power, I don't think you can become a hero. Normally, for a Quirkless boy, I would suggest joining the police as a more realistic path. In your case, however…"

Izuku could barely muster the strength to keep walking. Tears and snot poured down his face. His life was over.

"Your second question was whether a boy who's killed somebody could become a hero. Young man, do you know what will happen to you because of today's actions?"

His first thought was a return to his fantasy of joining the hero class, but All Might had already said he wouldn't be a hero. Police followed his every move. Three heroes stood around him, probably in case he attempted anything. Two students were dead. The fantasy was dead. Izuku was dead.

"Am I going to go to jail?"

"Yes. Because you're young, you might get out someday." He looked away. "Then... you can... work for a hero support organization, if you want. But people with these kinds of crimes in their background can't become heroes."

Izuku stopped walking. The knowledge that he was a villain crushed him, crushed his bones to splinters that poked through his skin. He felt cornered like a rat and extinguished like a candle. His heart burned with pain. Tears soaked his shirt sleeves from wiping his eyes .

He didn't know if a minute or half an hour passed before All Might spoke. "It's time to leave. Let's head over to the police cars."

Izuku stumbled forward on leaden legs. "All Might…" he said.

"Yes?"

They reached the police cars. Two police officers patted Izuku down. A policewoman scanned him with a portable x-ray machine, then handcuffed him. Izuku didn't resist, his hands limp. He felt like he was watching the events from outside his body.

"Can you… can you ride in the car with me? Please. Just to the police station."

All Might looked at the policewoman. She nodded. He patted Izuku's shoulder.

"Sure, young man. Let's go."

All Might and Izuku climbed into the back of the police car together.

* * *

This is the final chapter. Thank you for all your wonderful comments. A few people asked in the earlier chapters when Midoriya was going to become a villain. The line was meant to be ambiguous - when do _you_ think he became a villain?

You'll love my next story just as much as this one! It's a fucked up mermaid AU love story starring our favorite duo, Izuku and Katsuki. You can read the first chapter of _It Deepens Like a Coastal Shelf_ right now by clicking to my profile!

_If you asked Katsuki Bakugou, he was a god among jealous mortals. If you asked his mother, Mitsuki, she would agree, except for the times she'd call him a brain-dead little bitch. If you asked his classmates, well. They knew to keep their mouths shut. So when Mitsuki bought a new, green-haired mer for the family's aquarium business, Katsuki wasn't exactly looking to have his mind changed. Unfortunately, Izuku Midoriya might force him to rethink who he is, what he believes in, and whether his "normal" - his thoughts, his life, his mother, mers, everything - is really how the world should be._


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